MOSCOW, August 06./ITAR-TASS/. A squadron of fighter-bombers Sukhoi Su-34 of the Western Military District has flown along the Northern Sea Route on Wednesday for the first time, chief press officer of the military district Colonel Oleg Kochetkov told ITAR-TASS.

“Flights were made over the area of the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. Each crew has made two aerial refuellings, flying more than five thousand kilometres,” Kochetkov said.

He noted that crews had made refuelling in a pair simultaneously. “The performance of the hardest flight training operation - aerial refuelling - was complicated with strong gusty winds traditional for this season in high latitudes. All crews coped successfully with all tasks set at this stage of war games,” the military district’s spokesman said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Air Force Chief Commander Lieutenant General Viktor Bondarev named drills in the Arctic as the top goal of large-scale military exercises of Air Force and Air Defense Forces in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region. He added that military exercises should drill a long-range interception by fighters, meanwhile, warplanes will act up to the 82nd parallel north.